Latest Defence Helicopters news – Page 472
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Boeing offers B-52 re-engineing
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE US AIR FORCE'S remaining fleet of Boeing B-52H bombers will be re-engined with Rolls-Royce RB.211 turbofan engines, if the Pentagon accepts an unsolicited offer from Boeing. The bid made to the USAF's Air Logistics Center involves upgrading 94 of the eight-engined ...
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V-22 production
The US Navy has awarded Bell-Boeing a $1.4 billion contract to begin low-rate initial production of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft for the US Marine Corps. The award covers the first lot of four V-22s and holds options for the second and third production lots of five and seven aircraft, ...
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RAF targets its future needs
Andrew Chuter/LONDON THE ROYAL AIR FORCE has outlined a vision of the future where bombs do not go bang, and pilots fly combat aircraft without ever leaving the ground. UK defence officials say that, in some areas, work is starting to get under way which ...
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Japan considers fusing transport/MPA needs
Paul Lewis /TOKYO JAPAN DEFENCE AGENCY (JDA) planners are looking for possible ways to reconcile financially and technically conflicting requirements for the development of new transport and maritime-patrol aircraft (MPAs) The Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF) wants to begin development of a replacement for its ...
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USN PC-9 plan
The US Navy plans to buy or lease two Pilatus PC-9 turboprop trainers, "or equivalent aircraft", to use as chase aircraft for the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor flight-test programme. The aircraft will be required for five years beginning in April 1997. The Navy is calling for a level-flight speed ...
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USAF 'broke orders' on CT-43 disaster flight
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE US AIR FORCE says that the 3 April Boeing CT-43A flight to Dubrovnik, Croatia, which crashed killing US Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown and 34 others, took place in breach of orders. The airport's, approach procedure had not been approved by ...
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Smiths set for RAF Chinook HUMS contract
David Learmount/LONDON HEALTH AND USAGE monitoring systems (HUMS) are to be fitted to all Royal Air Force Boeing Chinook helicopters during the next three years, and "progressively" to the entire UK military helicopter fleet, according to the winning equipment supplier, Smiths Industries Aerospace. The UK contract ...
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US Navy plans commercial vertrep contract awards
THE US NAVY'S Military Sealift Command (MSC) is planning to award a series of contracts involving use of commercially operated helicopters for vertical replenishment (VERTREP) of its warships. The contract awards are designed to meet a projected shortfall of US Navy Boeing Helicopters CH-46 helicopters, which are now ...
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ARINC launches its 'FANS for classics'
Kieran Daly/SINGAPORE A MAJOR US operator is the launch customer for an ambitious programme designed by US avionics and communications specialist ARINC to make "classic" long-haul aircraft compatible with the air-traffic system of the future. ARINC is offering to develop solutions for any classics which operators ...
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BAe teams up with MDC for Nimrod relaunch plans
BRITISH AEROSPACE is offering to restart production of the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) for export and has linked with McDonnell Douglas (MDC) to try to boost the market potential of its Nimrod 2000. The agreement comes less than a month before the UK Ministry of Defence is ...
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Boeing talks again to Harbin about Chinook production
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE BOEING HELICOPTER is in further talks with Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing (HAMC) about transferring and restarting production of the Model 234 Commercial Chinook in China. A HAMC team is understood to have visited Boeing in Philadelphia in mid-May to discuss market prospects and funding for ...
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US Air Force looks at hand-held GPS sets
THE US MILITARY is considering requiring the use of hand-held global-positioning-system (GPS) sets in both fixed-and rotary-wing military passenger-aircraft, following the US Air Force Boeing CT-43 crash near Dubrovnik, Croatia, on 3 April. The hand-held GPS equipment would fill the gap until an integrated GPS is fitted to ...
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IPTN gets go-ahead for STOL-airliner programme
INDONESIA'S IPTN HAS received permission to begin development of a purely commercial short take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft, with a capacity of more than 20 seats, to replace machines in the de Havilland Twin Otter class. The project will target a new type, rather than a redevelopment of an existing ...
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GE YF120 wins the vote as Joint Strike Fighter competitive engine
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA GENERAL ELECTRIC'S YF120 has been selected by the US/UK Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme office as the alternative engine to the Pratt & Whitney F119 already chosen. The JSF programme office has been studying derivatives of the GE F110 and YF120 as an ...
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Airbus confronted by defeat on FLA
Julian Moxon and Gilbert Sedbon/PARIS AIRBUS Military Company has admitted that the European Future Large Aircraft (FLA) faces collapse because of France's decision not to fund development of the programme. The Airbus Industrie unit, yet to be formally established, reacted angrily to the French Government's ...
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Manufacturers must compare
Sir - Comparing notes is certainly a good idea (Letters, Flight International, 10-16 April, P41) - and not just between military and civilian organisations. Manufacturers should surely do the same, especially in matters relating to aircraft structure and integrity. The industry appears not to have learned the lesson ...
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US Air Force will upgrade E-4B command posts
US AIR FORCE Boeing E-4B national command-and-control aircraft are to be upgraded to act as airborne operations centres for the US Secretary of Defense. The four modified 747s are to be equipped with a fibre-optic communications "backbone", or local-area network, and UHF and commercial satellite-communications (satcom) capability. The ...
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Dassault aims Atlantic at European MPA tenders
DASSAULT AVIATION is to offer its Atlantic Third Generation (ATL3G) maritime-patrol aircraft (MPA) to the German, Italian and French navies. The three forces, which already operate earlier versions of the Atlantic, require a total of around 50 aircraft between 2005 and 2010. The aircraft, offered as an ...
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Northrop Grumman teams with DASA
Northrop Grumman and Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) have formed a team to produce the E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) should the US system be selected by NATO for its Airborne Ground Surveillance (AGS) programme. NATO is expected to decide by the end of this year ...
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Something old, something new, something borrowed...
With a July decision date, the RAF's Nimrod competition is reaching boiling point. Douglas Barrie/LONDON Graham Warwick/ATLANTA MORE THAN 20 YEARS AGO, Hawker Siddeley emerged victorious from the ruck of the Royal Air Force's last maritime-patrol-aircraft (MPA) competition. The surprise winner of Operational Requirement 381 ...